"So this is definitely my surprise," she said excitedly, almost bouncing in anticipation.
"Definitely. Absolutely. Positively. Yes," the Doctor confirmed, struggling a little to open the door with one hand whilst keeping her eyes covered with the other. Sometimes he could be so entirely thoughtless and others, like this, he could be ridiculously sweet and sentimental. Rose found it hard to keep up with him at times.
He finally got the door open and manoeuvred her carefully inside.
"It's cold," she said with a frown as she was struck by a blast of icy air.
"I hope so," the Doctor muttered, before removing his hand.
Rose actually gasped in shock. The room was entirely made of ice. Every brick, every column every tile. All but the small area they were standing on which was covered in a thick red carpet and a threadbare sofa that could really do with replacing. There was a hook on the wall and upon it hung two pairs of boots, with sharp steel blades.
"It's an ice skating rink!" Rose squealed in delight, turning round to hug him happily, "I take it all back. You are so impressive."
He grinned, thrilled to have pleased her so much.
"I thought you could do with a little exercise to help strengthen your leg up again," he said, as if to make out that that was the only reason he had done this. She knew that wasn't true though.
"Come on," she insisted, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the boots.
He pulled back a little, "No, you go ahead. I'll just sit here and watch."
"Oh, don't spoil it," she protested, "It's better with two."
He shook his head at her audacity to use that against him. She knew those words would make him agree to almost anything.
A little reluctantly he put on the boots, lacing them up tightly. By the time he had finished she was already out on the ice, gliding and twirling gracefully across the surface. She was really quite good.
"Don't tell me," he said with a small grimace as he stood up and awkwardly walked towards the rink, "You're some kind of ice skating champion and you neglected to tell me."
She laughed, "Not quite. We used to go ice skating, me and mates, every time someone had a birthday. Shireen used to fall over on purpose so that the marshal she fancied would have to come and pick her up. Then one day she went a bit too far and broke her collar bone. Our mums stopped us going after that."
"I can see why," the Doctor said, gingerly stepping out onto the slippery surface, "This is bloody dangerous."
Rose grinned, "Don't tell me you've never done this before."
"Of course I haven't!" he exclaimed, "It's totally stupid! Why would anyone want to slide around on frozen water?"
"Because it's fun," she reasoned.
The Doctor tried to move forward, his legs immediately sliding all out of control and he only just managed to stay upright by grabbing onto a nearby column.
"Oh yeah, really fun," he complained, bitterly.
Rose laughed as she skated over to him, "Come on then. Let's get you moving."
He shook his head, "Rose, this really is a bad idea."
"Probably," she said with a shrug, "But it is kind of nice to find something you're crap at."
"Oh thanks."
Grabbing hold of his hands she uncurled his fingers from their death-grip around the column and pulled him away from the safety of the edge. Skating backwards she was able to guide him along at a slow pace. He wasn't graceful or quick, that was for sure. In fact an arthritic hippo probably would have moved better, but at least he was doing it.
After a couple of minutes of leading him round by the hand he looked like he was at least getting the hang of being stable, so she decided to try something. He had to progress after all.
"Now, I'm going to let go", she warned, starting to loosen her grip.
"No, really, don't," he said, grabbing onto her hands for dear life.
"You'll be alright," she soothed, ignoring her crushed fingers, "Just don't lean back okay? Always lean forward slightly and you shouldn't fall over."
"Shouldn't?" he asked, sceptically, pouncing on the one word in that sentence that he really didn't like the sound of.
She rolled her eyes, "What's the worse that can happen? You fall over a get a sore backside for a while."
"I don't want a sore backside, thank you very much," he complained with a scowl.
"What are you?" she asked cheekily, "A Time Lord or a mouse?"
He glared at her, "You're loving this, aren't you?"
She giggled slightly, "Just a little, I promise. Come on, don't you trust me?"
He looked into her eyes and immediately saw the glint there. Of course he trusted her, she knew that. But now he had to do this to prove that he did. She was a right crafty little minx sometimes.
Carefully, Rose loosened the grip on his hands and began to back away.
"Don't worry," she said brightly, "We'll be the Torvill and Dean of the TARDIS in no time."
She let go.
For a few precious seconds he had it. He was balancing on his own and seemed rather smug about it. Then he appeared to realise that his safety net was gone, and all the confidence drained immediately out of him. His arms flailed wildly in the air and his feet slipped dangerous to one side. Rose darted forward to grab him and steady him again, but his momentum was too great. Within moments she was laying flat on her back and, to add insult to injury, he piled down on top of her with a small thud.
She looked up at him with a mildly cross expression on her face.
"You leant back," she pointed out.
"It would appear so, yes."
"I seem remember saying that was a bad idea."
"Told you this whole thing was stupid," he grumbled, "That's a totally daft rule."
"It's not a rule. It's how you stay on your feet."
She grimaced slightly as a twinge ran down her back. The Doctor immediately frowned.
"I didn't hurt you, did I? Is your ankle alright?"
She nodded, "I'm fine. Just my bum hurts. I'm not going be able to sit down for a week without wincing, you know."
He grinned at her, "I'd offer to rub it better but I know what you Tyler women are like. I'd be looking for a slap."
He immediately wished he hadn't suggested that at all as a startled look played across Rose's eyes. She was staring at him, breathing cold air gently onto his lips and he was suddenly acutely aware of every place his body was in contact with hers.
Did her lips always look that inviting or was it just because he was lying on top of her?
Suddenly there a bleep and a loud clonk from the direction of the door. The pair of them turned to look at it and then back at each other with a shared frown.
"That didn't sound too good," the Doctor admitted.
He rolled off of her, watching slightly enviously as she stood up with ease.
"May need a little help down here," he pointed out, rather pathetically.
Rose sighed, tucked her strands of loose hair behind her ear and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, dragging him on his backside towards the door.
"This is not the most dignified position for a Time Lord," he grumbled.
"Well," she pointed out, struggling a little to pull his weight along, "You should have thought about that before you leant back."
Back on the small carpeted area, he gratefully yanked the boots off and padded over to the door in his socks. Rose followed closely behind.
"What's the matter?" she asked, watching as he studied the display on the panel next to the door.
"Depends," he said, briefly, "Would you like the bad news, the good news, or the other bad news?"
Rose frowned, not liking where this was going, "Er… bad news first."
"Well," he explained, "It seems the TARDIS has found some more broken configuration systems from that small problem yesterday, and they need fixing."
Small problem? Oh yeah, he meant his pissing around which had lead to her breaking her ankle.
"And the good news?" she continued.
He grinned in smug delight, "The safety features I added to prevent accidents like yours seem to be working perfectly. Without a hitch."
Hmm. Things sounded okay so far.
"So the other bad news would be…?"
He shifted slightly uncomfortably "Well, you see this particular safety feature locks all the doors to stop anyone accidentally wandering into an unconfigured room. That's how it stops anymore accidents happening. The one slight drawback being if you're already in a room there's no way of opening it."
"So?" Rose pressed, wanting him to get to the point rather than skipping lightly around it.
"We're locked in here until the repair process is complete," he admitted. At least he had the good grace to look a little sheepish about it.
Rose's eyes widened, "And how long's that then?"
The Doctor turned back to consult the panel, "Er…According to the estimate, eight hours, forty seven minutes and thirty-five seconds."
He frowned and glanced at it again momentarily, "Sorry, twenty-five seconds."
Rose glared at him fiercely.
"What?" he asked with a shrug.
"Would you do me a favour?" she asked sweetly.
He nodded, "Sure."
"Stop playing with the TARDIS."